The Pros and Cons of a 4-Day School Week (2024)

One of the newest trends in education is…shortening the school week.

I recently published an article that lays out exactly why many school districts are opting to cut a day off of their typical school week. (Spoiler: the answer is money.)

If you’re curious to know the details, I’d recommend reading that first.

The more important question is that, now that schools are choosing to make this change, what benefits and drawbacks does it potentially have for the students and families that are impacted?

While data is still scarce, below I’ll lay out the potential benefits and drawbacks that supporters and detractors of this new system may propose, and then we’ll look at why there may or may not be a basis to those claims.

Ready? Let’s go.

Benefits of a 4-Day Week

Some of the potential benefits of the 4-day school week are:

Teacher Recruitment and Retainment: Administrators report that teachers are more likely to want to work in a district that has a shorter school week. They are also more likely to stay with that district for a longer period of time. Some administrators have even said that they have received more out-of-state applicants since moving to the shorter week.

However, these viewpoints held by administrators do not currently seem to be backed up by research. Even if this model is attracting more teachers, it is only a short-term benefit. If all of the schools in a given area are working a 4-day week, then there’s no longer any competition.

Attendance: With an extra day off each week, it makes sense that students and staff will be able to schedule appointments more easily, without having to take time out of the school week. Teachers are less likely to take days off due to stress.

Unfortunately, again, this does not necessarily seem to be the case when looking at the data. While the jury is out on whether teacher attendance improves, the difference in attendance for students is, at most, minimal.

Increased Family Time: One surprising finding related to the 4-day school week is that it appears to receive positive feedback not just from teachers and students (who obviously enjoy the day off), but parents as well. Families have reported being able to use this time to engage in activities together, which leads to better overall contentment.

Keep in mind that these districts are primarily in rural areas, where it is more likely for at least one parent to be home during the week, and this benefit is null and void if the student spends the entire extra day off in front of video games.

Less Stress: Having an extra day off allows teachers to have more time to complete lesson plans and paperwork. Students have more time to do their homework (although they’ll undoubtedly still wait until the night before it’s due).

Overall, while cost savings are the biggest benefit to the 4-day school week, the potential benefits to the work-life balance and mental wellbeing of students and staff can’t be overlooked.

Drawbacks of a 4-Day Week

Of course, if there weren’t any drawbacks to the 4-day school week then everyone would be doing it, right? So why aren’t they?

Well, here are some of the potential drawbacks:

Longer School Days: In an attempt to maximize the number of hours that students are in the classroom, students on the shortened schedule generally attend school about an hour longer each day. This means more time that students will be sitting in class, which can be difficult, particularly for younger students.

Potential Impact on Finances: Many students across the country receive free or reduced-price lunches and breakfasts at school. Cutting a day out of the school week could potentially impact the number of meals that low-income students are able to have during the week.

So far studies have found that the shortened school week does not impact food insecurity or family finances. However, roughly 90% of districts currently using the 4-day school week are in rural districts. If and when this model becomes prevalent in urban areas, where parents are more likely to work outside the house and where there is a higher prevalence of single parenthood, this may become a problem, as parents may be forced to pay more for child care.

On the flip side, having an extra day off each week could provide extra working hours for high school students who are earning money to help provide for the family.

Student Achievement: This is a big one. The primary reason that school districts don’t want to move to a 4-day week is because of the potential it has to impact student performance on statewide tests (which is the only real measure we have to know if students are learning). If students are in school for fewer hours, then clearly there will be less time for students to learn the material and their achievement will suffer as a result.

Right?

As it turns out, the truth is a bit more complicated than that.

Student Achievement: A Complex Question

Multiple studies appear to have been done on whether or not a shorter school week impacts student achievement and the results are… mixed.

Here’s a brief rundown of the results:

• A study from the RAND Corporation found that while there did not appear to be any immediate differences in student achievement when schools switched to a shortened school week, the achievement did not grow as fast in the 4-day districts compared with similar 5-day districts.
• A study of 4-day districts in Oregon found that the shortened weeks have detrimental impacts on student achievement, particularly for boys and low-income students.
• A study published in the MIT Press Direct indicated a positive relationship between the four-day school week and academic achievement.
• A ScienceDirect study found that student achievement was negatively impacted in 4-day districts that had low overall time in school, but there was no difference in achievement for students in 4-day districts that spent more hours at school.

So what’s the answer?

Does it help students learn more?

Does it mean students learn less?

Does it mean that some students learn less?

Will achievement stay the same as long as students have long enough school days?

Obviously this is a complex issue and, for the moment, the answers to these questions appear to be unclear. However, the fact that results seem to differ so much across studies is a strong indication that the length of the school week is not the only thing that impacts student achievement.

Schools may be able to mitigate any potential repercussions that may come from having a 4-day school week — such as having longer school days, providing tutoring on the day off or maximizing learning time on the days when students are present.

Conclusion

At this point in time it’s still hard to say whether the 4-day school week trend will catch on nationwide and whether or not it’s a good or bad thing.

The current data is just too lacking and a lot of it is currently inconclusive at best and contradictory at worst. Only time will tell whether or not shortening the school week is in the best interests of the schools (from a financial perspective), but also in the best interests of the students.

If you’d like to share your thoughts on whether or not this is a good move, feel free to email me at stateofeducationus@gmail.com.

Have a wonderful day!